Nunn, Sam (1938–)

Democratic Senator from Georgia known for his long service on the Senate Committee on Armed Services. Born September 8, 1938, in Perry, Georgia, Nunn was the grandnephew of Congressman Carl Vinson of Georgia. He graduated from Emory University in 1961 and received a law degree from the school the following year. While an undergraduate, Nunn served two years in the Coast Guard and served in the Coast Guard Reserve from 1960 to 1968. After admission to the bar in 1962, he worked for the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives, but soon had to return to his hometown to help on the family farm.

Nunn entered politics by winning election to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1968. Four years later, he entered the U.S. Senate in a special election to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Senator Richard Russell. His most noteworthy legislative achievements include drafting the 1986 Department of Defense Reorganization Act, and the 1991 Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. The former resulted in the most significant defense reorganization since the National Security Act of 1947; the latter provided incentives for Russia and its former republics to destroy excess nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. For their pioneering legislation, Senators Nunn and Lugar were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in both 2000 and 2001. In addition to the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Nunn also served on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the Intelligence and Small Business Committees.

Also notable in the career of Senator Nunn was his 1991 vote in opposition to military action against Saddam Hussein's forces in Kuwait. Mr. Nunn himself has stated that this vote ruined an otherwise promising run for the White House on the 1992 Democratic ticket. After the United States emerged victorious from Operation Desert Storm, Senator Nunn withdrew from the presidential race because of the unpopularity of his antiwar stance. Nunn chose not to run for reelection in 1996.

[Page 544]Following his retirement from politics, Nunn practiced law for the firm King and Spalding in Atlanta and has served on many corporate boards. In addition, he serves as cochairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), founded in 2001 to reduce the threat posed to global security by weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Sam Nunn is also a distinguished professor at the School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech University, which bears his name.